People born in India have long been one of the principal immigrant communities to Britain, with a wide geographical spread of communities.

There were roughly 466,000 Indian-born people recorded in the 2001 Census, although people with Indian heritage top one million.
There are many Indian community hubs - such as London's Southall or Birmingham's Handsworth - but clusters of Indian-born people are also more diffuse.

The relative prosperity and deep roots of India-born people can be seen in a move into more affluent suburbs. However, retirements to the home country are almost certainly playing a part in the community's size.

Concentrations of people born in India

Map on right shows country as if areas with roughly equal populations were the same size. So, densely populated London takes up much more space than sparsely populated Scottish Highlands.

At-a-glance

466,416 Indian-born people were living in Britain in 2001, representing a 14% rise over 10 years.

0.82% of the British population was born in India. The proportion in London is 2.41%, followed by 1.43% in the West Midlands.

9,209 people in Leicester's Belgrave area make it the most popular area for Indian-born people – a fifth of the local population.

25% more Indian-born people lived in the North East in 2001 than in 1991, making it the region where there was most change in people of Indian origin.